In the dimness of Hamstagg road, Orb swayed around to shatter the skullcaps of human carcasses emerging from the rubbles and steam vents. The undead just ran and wanted to grab Alicia's body, which she could slay with ease. Nauseous, she did not feel when seeing decayed flesh at all. She felt nothing but pique and wrath.
She often summoned several fallen bars and poles to clamp down on a horde of walking dead. Then, without mercy, the girl shot Arcane plasma at all the predator's faces. She kept screaming in furious as she continued to fire at one of the fallen undead until the shot pierced the ground, even though there were no more corpses left. Blood splattered all over the girl's face and round glasses.
The entire army of death had been wiped out. Alicia sat weakly on the dusty road. Not yet even a minute she took a quiet breath, her ears caught a loud snickering from the top of the building. A magician appeared and descended, approaching Alicia. Agosh Grendi, the necromancer of the Demon Continent, with his trademark mask, walked towards Alicia while chortling.
"Alicia, Alicia, Alicia," said the necromancer, "Will you, will you be my bride, Alicia? Let us rule the world together!"
"You!" Alicia stood back up. "I won't forget what you did. Don't you dare move, necromancer!"
"๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ, ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ข๐ต ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ฆ! You might prefer if I treat you as a corpse slave!"
Agosh summoned a sickle-blade from his staff and flew towards Alicia at lightning speed. He was about to cleave the girl's body with his giant scythe, but Alicia repulsed the blade with Orb's force field. The Arcane Dome was then absorbed into one point and then enlarged into a giant globe before being launched to his belly. Agosh was dragged a few metres away from her, but Alicia heard no complaints but screams of laughter that became increasingly disturbing.
Agosh then summoned his petโPlaxenin-3499โand made it spit out corrosive maggots at the girl. Alicia was more shrewd this time. She ran in zigzag, flawlessly avoiding any exposure to the larvas. She needed no Divine Grace at all to verge on the crippled monster that only possessed a head. With Orb's help, she aimed the front of the building to hoard Agosh who turned out to be more careless than expected. The devil's laughter was no longer in the air.
However, if she thought she could sit back down, she was gravely mistaken. A magic shot hit the girl from behind, making her stumble. Alicia turned her head. The masked magician gang was in front of her, with their wand ready to fire. But not all of their masks were intact. She found her relativesโwhom she called Spencer, Doyle, Uncle John, and Aunt Aimeeโwith their cracked masks.
"Crimsonmane bastard," said Spencer, "๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฆ think you're going to be of any use. Leave the orb with us, and we shall give you a quiet death."
She doubted now. She still felt unable to kill those related by blood, though it was the complete opposite for the four Crimsonmane wizards. But if her own life was at stake, she also had no other choice.
"Stop calling me a bastard," Alicia warned them.
"But you ๐ข๐ณ๐ฆ a bastard," Spencer replied.
"๐'๐ฎ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ต ๐ข ๐ฃ๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ"
"All pure-blood Crimsonmane descendants perform magic. But you cannot without the orb. What else if your mother ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฅ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฆ open her ๐ง๐ข๐ฏ๐ฏ๐บ for another ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฃ, a fancy ๐ฌ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฃ of a magic-less peasant?"
"๐๐ต๐ฐ๐ฑ ๐ช๐ฏ๐ด๐ถ๐ญ๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐บ ๐ฎ๐ฐ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ณ!"
"๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ณ ๐ง๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ญ๐บ ๐ช๐ด ๐ข ๐ฅ๐ช๐ด๐จ๐ณ๐ข๐ค๐ฆ! ๐๐ข๐ด๐ต๐ข๐ณ๐ฅ!"
"SILENCE!"
Alicia dashed and discharged the dark wizards, who just stood there one by one like chess pawns. When it was the turn for the Crimsonmane mages, they ambushed the girl straightaway. Alicia was able to shoot Spencer's wand out of his hand, but she was not fast enough to attack the others. Immediately, the three of them held Alicia's body and hands. Spencer then threw a punch at the girl's stomach and face without mercy!
Alicia had to re-synchronise with Orb, although the raw bombardments kept landing on her face, which made it easier for her to suffocate than focus. Her legs were able to grab the fallen Orb and suddenly, she screamed while making an enormous explosion of Arcane energy! The four malicious ones were thrown away and passed out on the spot.
As if knowing there would be another event waiting for her, Alicia re-formed her Arcane protective dome. Sure enough, swarms of insects numbering in the thousands swarmed the sacred force field. The savage insects stung the Arcane's defense and ached Alicia as a result. Then, amidst the humming black fog, the gas-masked mage of insects dashed and stormed onto the protective dome.
The pain from the magic bugs did not bother Alicia much as she was back then. She must take a deep breath while figuring out her next plan. Once again, the divine curse fell upon her; a pair of hands came from the middle of nowhere and strangled Alicia! They pulled her and Orb into the broken, empty space.
Both hands threw Alicia. An eastern rite sorcerer named Merlin was before her, along with his three bodyguards, and the magic monks. The bespectacled lady was pulled into the mirror dimension. She could see the insect mage enraged by her sudden disappearance.
Merlin possessed a different magical aura from her other foes. Alicia, still supine she was, moved backward with both hands in fear.
Merlin's hand reached out to her. "Come with us, we can help you."
"No. Away, away from me!"
The sky and its surroundings were suddenly shrouded in black shades. The darkness took effect in the mirror dimension, blurring Alicia's view of the sorcerer's flock. Merlin could only utter in echoes, "We need you, Alicia. Save us!"
And the whole realm was dark. All of Alicia's senses could not catch anything. She seemed to be adrift in the void. Before long, a pair of eyes appeared from the sky! The same eyes as her previous slumber. Each one was purple and white. Alicia and the foreign eyes stared at each other, waiting for their turn to attack. Standing for a while, Alicia had already united her thoughts with Orb.
The two eyes suddenly burst into a glare, blinding the careless Alicia. She was snared in the darkness, now she was made certain that she could not see. The girl panicked and rubbed her eyes. Fortunately, her blindness was temporary. Blurred images began to render in her vision, and it seemed the world was not mossy black anymore.
But that expression of gratitude had to be undone when a sharp object pierced Alicia Crimsonmane's chest! Shocked, she examined herself to see if something had penetrated her heart. Unfortunately, her guess was correct. She got a stuck dagger as a gift. A gift that came from a fang-masked shinobi right in front of her!
"You should have come with us, but you prefer this kind of ๐ฅ๐ฆ๐ด๐ต๐ช๐ฏ๐บ, don't you?" That was the raucous sound coming out behind the fanged mask.
Merlin was still there. Everyone was there, looking down on Alicia who was vomiting blood. The one who claimed to be the First Grand Magus clenched his fists as he stretched them forward, then unleashed his powerful moveโReality Bending.
The world seemed turned upside down for Alicia. Could it be because she was about to collapse due to her internal organs drowning in blood? Or because the world was turned upside down by Merlin?
Both were correct. Merlin commanded the streets and buildings upturned. The helpless Alicia instead fell into the glittering sky through the tunnel of clouds.
The upended sky was a bottomless abyss. The longer she went through, the more gripping it got. The deeper she travelled, the darker her surroundings were. Alicia passed the sparse star sprinkles, until she found nothing but Khaos' eyes, re-emerged from nothing! The left pupil of Primordial Opposition widened, canines protruding from its infinite sides to welcome the approaching Alicia.
Thousands of arranged teeth tore the girl's body in one chew!
"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
Dripping cold sweat, Alicia jumped from her bed. She was panting for breath, trying to make sense of what she had just experienced. A quite scary dream indeed, shown by her loose t-shirt was already wet on the collar.
Perhaps she was delirious and exercising while dreaming in the middle of the night!
One could not tell what was in her thought, to just wear loose clothes and underwear instead of pajamas when sleeping as usual. Even the thick blanket was only a second layer of bedsheets to her, albeit the dry summer night air in Eidyn metropolitan should have made her frozen. But what could she do, it had been two days since the recent incident that happened to her family. She was still shaken and could not slumber in peace. Her whole body was torrid even to be cooled by the twilight.
After a while, there was a knock on the door, then a masculine voice followed the banging. "Oi, Alicia! ๐ ๐ฆ ๐ข๐ธ๐ณ๐ช๐จ๐ฉ๐ต? ๐๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฆ tell me there's a new evil witch next to your bed. ๐'๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ณ๐จ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฐ!"
"What? No, no, no!" Alicia yelled. "I'm alright, don't you dare break my bedroom door! I'm still wearing my underwearโ"
There was a pause between them. Alicia covered her mouth, then slapped herself.
"What did ye say? What are ye still wearing?"
"F-forget it, Gilmore! Anyway, stay away from the door. I'll be out in a minute."
"Uh, okay. Nadine is cooking breakfast. Come 'ere immediately if ye ๐ฅ๐ช๐ฏ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ข๐ฏ๐ต๐ข๐ฆ miss yer ๐ด๐ค๐ณ๐ข๐ฏ."
After the sound of Gilmore's footsteps drifted away, a little peace came to Alicia at last. Realising she saw nothing but blurry images, she put on her glasses. Orb was still nearby; they did not forget to exchange greetings, which now had become a tradition between them. A scorching light had already invaded the gaps in the brown curtains. The time was seven, and there was nothing more exciting outside than the sound of the city, muffled by the soundproofing of her room. Thankfully, beyond the nightmare just now, the Silent Divine still blessed her with a proper morning.
"Ellie's Wrath, what happens to me lately?" muttered the girl before finally getting out of bed. She saw her reflection in the bathroom mirror. A languid face with a red mane that was not as graceful as a stallion. Instead, it was as tangled as a lion's hair.
"You look like a mess," she told herself in another realm.
She did look like a mess. []